Resurgent Tiger becomes threat at Augusta

AUGUSTA, GA. - At the end of the afternoon the skies couldn't decide if they wanted to present sunset or thunder.

Given the choice of metaphors, Tiger Woods went with noise.

The champion-in-exile was dawdling along at even par for the tournament after seven holes. At the time he was 10 shots behind leader Rory McIlroy.

Was golf being usurped by brazen roller-bladers? And by foreigners?

Not quite yet.

Woods struck a match, birdied Nos. 8, 9 and 10, kept the flame going for a change, and on the 18th escaped the trees and pine straw to conjure up a 10-foot birdie putt, which he made.

Boom! Woods was tied for third place at 7 under with K.J. Choi, three strokes behind the 21-year-old McIlroy and one shot behind Jason Day in second.

"I was patient early. I three-putted the seventh hole and I thought that maybe I'd get to 2 under and see what I could do, but I hung in there and now I'm in better position. But there's a long way to go."

Woods has been first, second, third and fourth after 36 holes in his four previous Masters victories. He also has not been higher than fourth at the end of a regular event on any tour since Thanksgiving night, 2009, although he was second at his own Chevron tournament last fall.

Conditions are favorable for Woods to play torrential golf. Greens are soft, pin positions are fairly charitable, tees have been moved up on some holes and the heat is coming.

Already you hear players regularly talk of hitting 6-irons into par-5s and 9-irons and wedges into long par-4s. That is what they were doing when Augusta National beefed up the course in the early 2000s. But, as usual, the scores depend on the weather.

The field shot about two-thirds of a stroke over par Friday and the cut was 1-over-par 145, tied for lowest in tournament history. There were 15 rounds of 69 or lower in the second round.

But the suspicion was that Tiger would resume winning when he began making long par putts again. That happened at No. 11, when he got a clear shot to the green after a wayward drive and then hit a poor first putt.

"The next putt was so hard," Woods said. "I had to allow a foot of break and allow a foot and a half for the wind. I had to putt it so slow that I knew the wind would get hold of it. And it blew it into the hole."

Woods hit 14 of 18 greens and needed only 26 putts. That's four fewer putts than Thursday, and he scored five strokes better.

It also was thoughtful of Woods to uphold the honor of the 30-year-olds.

McIlroy, 21, shot 69 to reach 10 under par even though he was only even on the back nine. He leads by two.

The same for 22-year-old Rickie Fowler, who fired a 69 in the same group with McIlroy and Day.

The three of them shot a best-ball 58, failing to birdie only four holes (first, third, 10th and 17th).

"We had fun out there," Fowler said. "We were chatting it up a bit, up the fairways, and trying to hit it inside each other and make more birdies than the other guy."

Before all of that, 51-year-old Fred Couples again played the Masters from memory, shooting 68 and getting to 5 under par. He has missed two cuts in 27 appearances, was the first-round leader last year and, of course, the winner in 1992.

"If I won this it would be the biggest upset in golf history," Couples said. "And I'd be gone."